Cloud Migration for SMEs: Costs, the 7 Rs, AWS vs Azure

Cloud migration for an SME means moving your applications, data and sometimes whole servers from hardware you run, or an old host, onto a provider such as AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. The move itself is a one-off cost, which for us starts from £5,000 and is fixed before work begins, and the monthly cloud bill that follows depends on what you run. The safe way to do it is in stages, with a way back at every step, and some systems should not move at all.

Our own cloud migration is a fixed-price project, so we can be specific about that part of the cost. The cloud bill is the larger number over time and it depends on your usage, so we do not invent a typical figure here. Below we cover what cloud migration means for an SME, the seven strategies AWS documents, how the cost works, AWS against Azure and Google Cloud, UK data protection and a staged plan.

Key takeaways

• AWS documents seven migration strategies, the 7 Rs. Retire, retain and repurchase can remove work before a single server moves.
• A migration is a one-off cost and the cloud bill is a running cost. Estimate the running cost with the providers’ own calculators before you commit.
• No provider suits every SME. Start from where your applications, licences and skills already are.
• A UK region keeps data stored in the UK. The ICO’s transfer rules also cover personal information made accessible to an organisation outside the UK, so ask where support access sits.
• A migration changes where software runs and leaves the code as it was. If the application is the problem, assess a rebuild first.

What does cloud migration mean for an SME?

Cloud migration is the move of data, applications or whole servers from on-premises hardware, or an older host, to a cloud provider’s infrastructure. The phrase covers two different jobs, and it helps to know which one you have.

The first job is moving everyday office systems such as email, file servers and desktops, often onto Microsoft 365. That work suits an IT support provider or a Microsoft partner, and we would tell you so if that is your whole job. The second job is moving what a product or an internal platform runs on: web apps, databases, background jobs, storage and backups. That is what our managed cloud service covers, and the rest of this article is about it.

The usual triggers for the second job are old hardware nearing the end of its life, a hosting arrangement nobody fully understands, backups nobody has tested, or a product that has outgrown one server. None of these forces a move on its own. Sometimes a better-run version of what you already have is the cheaper answer, and we will say so.

What are the 7 Rs of cloud migration?

AWS documents seven migration strategies, known as the 7 Rs (AWS Prescriptive Guidance). You may also see “replatforming” used for moving an online shop from one e-commerce platform to another. Here it carries the AWS meaning.

Strategy	What happens	Suits an SME when
Retire	Switch the system off	Nobody uses it any more
Retain	Leave it where it is for now	Hardware or data rules tie it down
Rehost	Move it unchanged	Old servers are the problem
Relocate	Move a platform to its cloud version	Mostly large estates
Repurchase	Replace it with another product	A subscription already does the job
Replatform	Move it with small optimisations	A managed service saves upkeep
Refactor	Redesign it for the cloud	The current design blocks growth

Retire and retain are easy to forget. AWS says retiring an application means you can shut down the servers behind it, and it lists data residency requirements among the reasons to retain one. A migration is a good moment to count how many systems anyone still uses.

Repurchase replaces the system with a different product, which AWS also calls drop and shop. For standard needs such as accounting or HR, a subscription often beats moving a server you would have to keep maintaining.

Rehost and replatform do most of the moving. AWS describes rehost, also called lift and shift, as moving an application without making any changes to it. Replatform adds some optimisation, for example moving a database to a fully managed service to save time and cost. Rehosting changes the least. Replatforming changes more, so it needs more testing.

Relocate transfers many servers at once to the cloud version of the same platform, so it mostly concerns large estates.

Refactor redesigns the application for the cloud. AWS calls it the most complex and costly strategy, because you modernise the application during the move. For large migrations AWS recommends rehosting, relocating or replatforming first and modernising once the migration is complete. We would follow the same order for a small estate.

How much does a cloud migration cost?

Our fixed-price cloud migration starts from £5,000 as a one-off project. That is the cost of the move. What you pay the provider every month afterwards is a separate cost, and it depends on what you run.

Here is how our infrastructure work is priced:

Service	Scope	Price
Cloud migration	One-off project	From £5,000
Infrastructure overhaul	Review, hardening, monitoring	From £8,000
DevOps set-up	One-off project	From £5,000
Maintenance and support	Ongoing	From £400 a month

Each project is scoped and agreed at a fixed price before work starts, and you pay in milestones as stages are delivered. The migration is a staged move planned to be reversible, with tested backups and a rollback path, and documentation and handover are included.

The running bill has a few moving parts. You pay for the compute you run and how long you run it. You also pay for storage and backups, for data moving out of the provider, for managed services such as databases and for any software licences. People time to monitor and patch it counts too, even though it never appears on the provider’s invoice.

We do not quote a typical monthly bill, because your inputs decide it. All three providers publish calculators: AWS Pricing Calculator, the Azure pricing calculator and the Google Cloud pricing calculator. AWS’s documentation says its calculator prices only the information you enter, and Google says its estimates may not match the final monthly bill. Treat the output as a planning figure and check it against the first real invoice.

Licences can change the sum. Microsoft’s Azure Hybrid Benefit page says eligible licences are SQL Server and Windows Server core licences with active Software Assurance, or qualifying subscription core licences. It also says those licences must be used either on premises or in the cloud, with a 180-day migration allowance, so plan the cut-over inside that window. Check what you own before you compare prices.

Two more questions are worth asking before you sign anything. What would it cost to leave this provider, including charges for moving data out? And who owns the bill each month? If nobody in the business can read it, a fractional CTO can fill the gap, and our infrastructure overhaul includes a review of the cloud bill for savings.

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: which suits an SME?

No provider wins in general. The right one is usually the one your applications, licences and team already lean towards.

Provider	Often fits when	UK data location
AWS	Your product or team already runs on it	Europe (London), 3 availability zones
Azure	You run Microsoft licences and tools	UK South (London), 3 zones
Google Cloud	Your product is built on Firebase or Google Cloud	europe-west2 (London), 3 zones

The “big three” usually means these providers. On UK locations, AWS lists a Europe (London) region, eu-west-2, with three availability zones (AWS). Microsoft lists UK South in London with three zones, and UK West in Cardiff with no availability zones (Microsoft Learn). Google Cloud lists europe-west2 in London with three zones (Google Cloud).

Our recent builds run on AWS, Google Cloud and Firebase, and we work with Azure for organisations already committed to Microsoft. We would rather work with what you are on than force a move. You will see predictions about which provider will overtake another. For a small estate, skills, licences and the cost of leaving matter more.

Lock-in grows with every provider-specific service you adopt. A rehost keeps it low. Moving to managed databases and queues saves upkeep and ties you in more tightly, so make that trade on purpose.

Is the cloud secure enough for UK business data?

It can be, and the provider covers only part of the job. The NCSC’s shared responsibility guidance says the customer remains responsible for securely configuring the services it has chosen and for deciding which data to store in them (NCSC, reviewed 7 June 2023).

The NCSC also publishes 14 cloud security principles, designed to help you choose a provider that meets your security needs (NCSC, version 2.1, reviewed 7 June 2023). Ask any provider you shortlist how it meets them, and keep the answers.

Data protection adds a second check. The ICO’s international transfers guide says the UK GDPR transfer rules apply when you send, or make accessible, personal information and three conditions are met. If you answer yes to all three, you are making a restricted transfer and need a route such as UK adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards (ICO, updated 15 January 2026).

A UK region keeps your data stored in the UK. It does not tell you where support staff, backups or other processors can reach that data from, so ask the provider. This is not legal advice, and your data protection adviser should confirm your own position.

On our side, a migration includes tested backups and a rollback path, and an infrastructure overhaul adds security hardening, monitoring and alerting.

A staged cloud migration plan

Moving from on-premises to cloud works best in four stages: assess, plan, migrate and optimise. Staging means each step can be undone until you decide it is finished.

Stage	What happens	You end with
Assess	List every system, its users and its dependencies	An inventory, with an R chosen for each
Plan	Order the moves and write the rollback path	A sequence with a way back
Migrate	Move one system at a time and test the backups	Systems live, old ones kept until proven
Optimise	Review the bill, monitoring and access	Costs and alerts that someone owns

These are the mistakes we would steer you away from:

• Moving everything in a single weekend.
• Skipping the inventory, so a forgotten dependency breaks on cut-over.
• Trusting a backup you have never restored.
• Leaving the old servers running for a year “just in case”, so you pay twice.

Once the systems are across, releases are often the next pain. A DevOps set-up from £5,000 puts a documented CI/CD pipeline, monitoring and alerting and infrastructure as code in place, so deployments become routine. Ongoing maintenance and support starts from £400 a month.

When to rebuild instead of migrate

A migration changes where software runs. It leaves the code as it was. If the application is the reason you are moving, because nobody can change it safely, a migration relocates the problem.

Our legacy systems guide sets out how to choose between refactoring, rebuilding and replacing. Two fixed-price first steps follow from it. A rebuild discovery is £4,000 and reaches a decision for one system. A modernisation assessment is £5,000 and reviews your legacy systems one by one, ending in a roadmap.

Next step: get your migration scoped

Write down every system you run, who uses it and where it runs today. That list is the input to everything above, and it is the best thing to bring to a first conversation.

With it we can tell you which of the seven Rs apply to each system and what a cloud migration would cost, as a fixed price agreed before work starts. Some systems will come out as retire or retain, and we will say so.